Brief Ecstasy (Greville, 1937): BFI Southbank, NFT2, 6.30pm
This 35mm presentation, also screening on September 11th, is part of the Martin Scorsese's Hidden gems of British Cinema season at BFI Southbank. Details here.
Time Out review:
A remarkable film, thematically not dissimilar to Brief Encounter,
except that lust is given a fair crack of the whip. A strong erotic
undertow runs through the witty opening scene: in the exchange of covert
glances as Hugh Williams comes into a snack bar where Linden Travers is having
coffee; in the 'accidental' pawing of her person as he mops the coffee
he has spilt; in the over-pitched fury with which she slaps him. His
subsequent apology accepted, a superb montage (soft music, silhouettes,
champagne, whispered exchanges) heralds a brief night of ecstasy, after
which he announces his imminent departure for India. Five years later,
he returns to find her the beloved wife of a distinguished, much older
scientist (Paul Lukas), and desire is reborn. The excellent script plays fair
by all the characters (one scene has Lukas start skipping gaily
upstairs to bed in his wife's wake, only to pause, puffing, before he
makes it). And Travers' inner struggle, no becoming yes then no again as
she realises what she means to her husband, is beautifully detailed in
both performance and Richard T. Gréville's expressionist-tinged direction, which
makes it clear that her choice of love is made at the bitter cost of the
other thing.
Tom Milne
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